Press Highlights

Highlights

CheifExecutive So You Want To Be A Private Equity CEO?
You can’t unilaterally make big decisions to change direction—you need both input and buy-in from your PE partners. The ability to take that all in, have those conversations quickly and change course is critical. Rash decisions can also be disastrous. “It’s always a fine balance between being impulsive and being in analysis paralysis. That’s the heart of it,” says Faisal Hoque, founder and CEO of Shadoka. “You need data but you also need to be a risk taker whereby you can make faster decisions. The ability to balance those two factors—that’s experience.”

Fox Business | LearnVest 7 Ways to Keep Work Stress From Invading Your Entire Life
“Unless something unusual happened, rehashing and ruminating over things to your friends or spouse sometimes just feeds the stress,” Hoque says, as it will just stay on your mind during your downtime and potentially snowball into a bigger deal than it really is.

CreditDonkeyThe Best Entrepreneurship Blogs for 2017
“Entrepreneur Faisal Hoque’s blog is packed with great tips for aspiring small business owners, but his psychological tips for staying strong under pressure and in the face of failure are a real standout. Why Faisal Hoque is a Top Entrepreneurship Blog: Entrepreneurship is a tough gig, so if you’re feeling the pressure every day, this blog’s tips for staying calm, clear-headed, and productive will be very helpful.”

Fast CompanyWhat To Do When Popular Stress-Relief Advice Doesn’t Work For You
Rather than trying to find a 20-minute slot in your calendar to breathe and sit still, try simply slowing down when you’re working. That’s it. As entrepreneur Faisal Hoque previously wrote for Fast Company, “Feeling like you’re constantly short on time is a state of mind. Sure, you may actually have more on your plate than you can possibly handle, but the way you work might be maximizing rather than reducing the stress of that.” When you train yourself to slow down, you’re also training your brain to pause more often, which helps you focus better, be more efficient, and free up more time which leads to . . . less stress.

Get Better At Managing Your Time
It’s one thing to set goals, and it’s another to meet them on time. The Project Management Institute reports that only 64% of projects meet their goals. Getting the job done without stretching deadlines can quickly make you a workplace star. One way to make sure you get things done is by avoiding generating too many ideas up front, according to entrepreneur Faisal Hoque, so keep it simple and straightforward. Once you’ve defined your project’s basic scope, says Hoque, outline a few of the initial milestones. “With every small first step,” he says, the path forward becomes ever clearer.”

From Productivity Shortcuts To Slower Work: This Week’s Top Leadership Stories
You’ve heard all about the evils of multitasking and the wonders of meditation—but chances are you still try to juggle too much at once and aren’t as reflective as you could be. The thing is, it could be costing you serious cognitive resources. This week, author and entrepreneur Faisal Hoque explained why slower might be better.

“Unlike the short bursts of tactical execution that tend to keep us busy over the course of a workday, cooking is more about process and decision-making. As Hoque sees it, that nurtures mindfulness, creativity, and the patience it takes to build mastery.”

“And as serial entrepreneur Faisal Hoque observes, in the early days of Whole Foods, founder John Mackey focused on fostering an emotional attachment to the brand to nurture loyal customers, who then acted as evangelists.”

Are You an Innovation Machine?
“Innovation has no end point,” Hoque continues, “and it includes everything from how you take your product to market to how you serve your customer to how you come up with effective pricing solutions.

Narrowing the Innovation Gap
The good news, says Hoque, is that bold innovation doesn’t have to break the bank, nor does it have to take years to implement.

Manta – The Place for Small Business5 Simple Ways to Succeed at Innovation
Serial entrepreneur, thought leader and author Faisal Hoque, agreed that innovation can be simple. “Even finding ways for your customer to interact or find you more easily is a process of innovation,” he said.

Hoque asserted, “If you’re not going to do it, you’re going to be out of business. It’s as simple as that.”

Entrepreneur’s Organization (EO)Highlights from “Survive to Thrive”
“Entrepreneurs are praised for their triumphs, but what about their struggles and the journeys that brought them to success? In their new book, “Survive to Thrive: 27 Practices of Resilient Entrepreneurs, Innovators, And Leaders,” Faisal Hoque and Lydia Dishman let us look behind the curtain, sharing stories of now-thriving, prominent figures of business, like Julie Wainwright and Andy Sack. Each story focuses on one of nine essential principles needed to overcome adversity and seize opportunities.”

Hartford Business JournalTips for managing the ups and downs of entrepreneurism
Survive to Thrive — 27 Practices of Resilient Entrepreneurs, Innovators and Leaders” by Faisal Hoque and Lydia Dishman (Motivational Press, $19.95). There’s no such thing as an overnight success. Entrepreneurial dreams are always in “immediate, clear and present danger of demise.” Finding the upside when you’re upside down requires resilience. Through stories of entrepreneurs, the authors identified 27 resilience practices.”

Source of InsightDo You Have Monsters Under the Bed Syndrome?
“We mess up. Life’s messy. If you’re a leader, an entrepreneur, or simply human, I bet you can relate. In the book, Survive to Thrive: 27 Practices of Resilient Entrepreneurs, Innovators, and Leaders, Faisal Hoque and Lydia Dishman serve up some great insight in how to get rid of the Monsters-Under-the-Bed and put fear and failure in their place.”

Accredited Investor Markets (AIMkts)™ Most VC-backed businesses fail
Faisal Hoque says, “In today’s volatile market, the success for a new venture is often driven by its ability to recognize significant challenges and immediately identify the strategic imperatives necessary to address, survive, surpass, and thrive despite them.”

The American BazaarWells Fargo plans to lend $100 billion to small businesses by 2018
“There is absolutely no substitute for passion and authenticity,” Hoque said in summation of his remarks, telling future and current small business owners that being true to themselves and passionate about their ideas are ultimately what will lead them to success in the long run.

11 Expert Tips To Help You Be More Productive In 2014Author and entrepreneur Faisal Hoque has mastered the art of doing one thing at a time. In fact he’s so good at “single-tasking,” that he can lose himself mundane task like vacuuming and help ground his focus for his work. “Being in the moment allows us to escape from adversity, conserve our inner energy, and be more consciously productive,” he says.

3 Ways Successful Leaders Buffer And Bounce Back From Adversity
Talk about a trip: BTM Corporation founder Faisal Hoque started his career in the U.S. as a “janitorial engineer,” but eventually went on to raise $95 million for his businesses, despite setbacks like being ousted as CEO of his own company (sound familiar, Apple?). Here’s what he learned along the way.

Forbes Success in Business Comes When Everything ConnectsThe business world is a symphony of players and elements that only works when everything interconnects harmoniously. Continuous innovation and continuous learning are required for any sustained connection and success.

With Great Startups It’s All About The ExecutionPeople and operational excellence have to converge in every business, large or small. I found a good summary of the relevant keys to business operational excellence in a new book by Faisal Hoque, called “The Power of Convergence.” His focus is on repeatable practices to maximize business opportunities in large companies, but I’m convinced that these apply equally well to startups.

Collaborate to Innovate“Working in high tech, I am surrounded by innovative ideas and collaboration-influenced projects. But is this the norm? I was surprised to find out that the average life span of S&P companies has been steadily decreasing from more than 50 years to fewer than 25 years as of today. When you project forward, it is likely that only a third of today’s major corporations will survive as significant businesses over the next 25 years. (data points from the Speed of Business Today by Faisal Hoque). This is a sobering thought!”

Skip Prichard Leadership Insights Everything Connects: An Interview with Faisal HoqueWe need to arrange our lives and our organizations in a way that leads to long-term value creation: surveying the subtle and not-so-subtle arts of idea generation, decision-making, and creating continuous value.

The Power of Convergence
In a converged organization technology and business leadership are able to operate simultaneously in both spaces. A single leadership team operates across both spaces with individual leaders directly involved with orchestrating actions in either space. Some activities may remain pure business and some pure technology, but most activities intertwine business and technology in such a manner that the two become indistinguishable.

TAA-TWA Trust Across America – Trust Around the World Names Top 100 Thought Leaders 2014Entrepreneur Faisal Hoque, Author of “Everything Connects” named one of the “TOP 100 THOUGHT LEADERS” alongside leaders such as Bill George, Tony Hsieh, Doug Conant, Howard Schultz, and others. Trust Across America-Trust Around the World (TAA-TWA), global leaders in organizational trust, has selected 2014’s Top 100 Thought Leaders. These experts can collectively transform the way organizations do business.

Xerox Everything Connects: Why Your Business Is Like a Nesting DollFaisal Hoque says organizational mindfulness can help you be aware of what’s happening inside and outside the people and organizations in your company, which can help you understand where connections can be made with the world – and your markets. We present this excerpt from “EVERYTHING CONNECTS: How To Transform And Lead In The Age Of Creativity, Innovation And Sustainability” by Faisal Hoque with Drake Baer. The book will be available at bookstores beginning in February.

BUSINESS INSIDERWeek in Review: Russia, VC, and PE Bosses
Faisal Hoque believes the number is particularly high because investors often falsely assume money ensures success. Instead, they — both VC and PE — should focus on better execution rather than capital infusion. By shifting the due diligence focus away from simply financial metrics to also include operational capabilities is a good starting point. These varied metrics will help better capture true growth potential. Hoque has a few other recommendations that are worth a read.

33voices33voices Interview with Faisal Hoque
In his latest book – The Power of Convergence – Faisal Hoque details why aligning technology decisions with a company’s business strategies is the key to sustainable success. Follow his logic and you’ll be clear that “through convergence, organizations shed their inefficiencies in favor of collaboration, shared goals, and focused outcomes. Convergence is the antithesis to internal rivalries, segmented initiatives, and fragmented strategies.” Here’s something that will challenge your thinking…

Independent JoeDonuts to Dollars in India
“There is a huge familiarity of U.S. culture and U.S. economy by the Indians, and vice versa – So from that point of view it’s easier for products or services like Dunkin’ Donuts to expand in that market.”

CIO Digest MagazineThe Power of Convergence Book Review
“Imagine that you have a new organization and are about to have lunch with the CEO to strategize on how to align business strategy with technology within and outside of the firm. Where do you start? Faisal Hoque’s The Power of Convergence is an excellent place to begin as it combines MBA-level strategy frameworks with real world examples of both successes and failures.”

Markets MediaCapital Market Bandwidth Requirements Escalate
“From the inception of the transatlantic cable that linked London and New York for foreign exchange, technology has transformed the securities industry,” said Faisal Hoque, founder and chief executive of BTM Corp.

Chief Executive MagazineLeading Transformative Growth
The business landscape is littered with the carcasses of companies that failed to adapt to changing conditions. Don’t join them.

“Today, every operating blueprint is so complicated; and without an execution strategy it doesn’t mean anything,” asserted Faisal Hoque, founder and CEO of BTM Corporation. “So unless you have a collaborative way of coming up with a strategy and also the operational executions, the company will fail.”

Making the Most of M&A Deals
BTM Founder and CEO, Faisal Hoque, former Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill, former P&G CEO A. G. Lafley, and Dean of Darden Graduate School of Business, Bob Bruner analyze potential paths for success and dangerous pitfalls of disaster often experienced in the world of M&A

You’re Married, Now What?“Acquiring companies focus on the numbers; they give much less attention to who will run the show and how,” agrees Faisal Hoque, founder and CEO of BTM Corporation, and author of The Power of Convergence. “Few have a process for integrating the best people, technologies, processes and functions,” Hoque adds. “They don’t consider how the business process architecture will come together in terms of the supply chain, distribution and customer care.”

The Hindu Business LineReap business value from tech investments“Most of you remember LEGO from your childhood, playing with the building blocks the company is famous for. But around 2004, when Jorgen Vig Knudstorp took the reins of the company, it was bleeding more than $300 million annually, recounts Faisal Hoque.”

CSMonitorSilicon Valley in Transition“If you look at those companies which have been enormously successful in Silicon Valley in the last five to 10 years, you find that they are largely founded on the business-to-consumer model,” says Faisal Hoque, CEO of BTM Corporation, which analyzes the convergence of business and technology management.

Bloomberg BusinessweekNew Business Books
A list of books about job-hunting, careers, management, leadership, entrepreneurship, and success.

CIO MagazineThe Necessity of Partnering Up“Whether you are Microsoft or General Electric the same rules apply,” says Hoque, who is also the founder of BTM, a management solution provider. “You can’t be the innovative leader in every single category you go after.”

What We’re Reading from the May 15, 2011 Issue of CIO MagazineEveryone’s trying to figure out how to get business and technology working in harmony, and Hoque, formerly a senior executive at GE and author of Sustained Innovation, charts out a path. He offers advice on leadership, innovation, enterprise architecture, agility and more, all illustrated with helpful diagrams.

InformationWeekMicrosoft To Buy Skype For $8.5 Billion“It’s the same reason why you use Google versus Bing–it’s a much more popular environment,” Faisal Hoque said. “I think people are more inclined to have both internally and externally focused communications over Skype.”

BaselineSpring Books for Technology Leaders
The head of the BTM Institute (along with a former Baseline editor) offers a new take on the convergence of business and technology strategies.

CIO QuarterlyFinding Common Ground: Moving through alignment to a state of convergence“In this issue of CIO Quarterly, global technology leaders and Mr. Convergence himself, Faisal Hoque, aim to give answers to these tough questions, discussing “in detail” the alignment evolution. Hoque, the architect of the Business Technology Convergence Index, advocates the importance of creating a ‘whole-brained enterprise’, where business and technology activities are intertwined and leadership teams operate almost interchangeably. And progressive CIOs agree.” – Editor-in-Chief, CIO Quarterly

The Wall Street TranscriptInterview with Faisal Hoque“BTM Corporation is a management solutions provider that innovates new business models, enhances financial performance and improves operational efficiency at leading global corporations, government agencies and social businesses by converging business and technology with its unique products and intellectual property.”

Interview with Faisal Hoque
This interview was conducted by CIO Insight Magazine at the recent 2008 Sino-American CIO Summit held in Beijing, China. Faisal delivered a presentation entitled, “Convergence: The Wave of Future Success – Measuring Innovation and Growth to Bolster the Bottom Line.”

Convergence, Yes; Alignment, No
Aligning technology with business is a fundamentally flawed and limiting concept. Instead, companies should achieve a true melding of technology and business minds–what he calls convergence.

Five Insightful Transformation BooksSustained Innovation and Winning The 3-Legged Race are selected as 2 of the 5 Top Transformation Books of last few years that can help align strategies and transform organizations in CIO Insight magazine.

The Daily News Paper of Bangladesh: The Daily IttefaqStory of Faisal Hoque and BTM Corporation
A native of Bangladesh, Faisal Hoque is the the Founder, Chairman and CEO of the BTM Corporation. He is the author of e-Enterprise, The Alignment Effect, Winning The 3-Legged Race, Six Billion Minds, and Sustained Innovation.

Italian Magazine: WMTInterview with Faisal Hoque
In this interview with Web Marketing Tools (WMT), Italy’s number one magazine dedicated to exploring technology related issues, columnist and technology consultant Gianroberto Casaleggio opens the interview by asking Faisal Hoque about his latest book, The Alignment Effect and why companies find it so difficult to get business results from technology.

Business AgilitySmart Devices & the Cloud Speed Business Agility
“This brings a whole new class of data to analytics,” says Faisal Hoque, founder and CEO of BTM Corp. “In the case of retail it is data that comes directly from the customer. There is no better customer data.”

Building Smart Applications Blogs
Why Are We Agile?“Traditional practices did not stress the need for innovation, but business now runs very differently than it did in the past. Boundaries no longer exist, and we play on a global field, where unforeseen changes in the marketplace and the competitive climate can arise at any time. (Hoque, 2010)”